Truman Blackman House

Description:	Drawing of the Truman Blackman House by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect. The Truman Blackman home, which has many historical associations with early Vigo County. Drawing by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect.The Truman Blackman house is one of the few very early houses in the county which are still standing and this is the more remarkable that it is a frame house and most of the other earlier houses which survive are brick or stone.Besides its age it has interesting historical associations. It has long been known as the house where in 1818 the commissioners appointed by the legislature of Indiana met and located the county seat of Vigo County at Terre Haute.The acts establishing the Circuit Court and the Board of County Commissioners set as their first meeting place the house of Truman Blackman on the Fort Harrison Prairie, from whence they may adjourn to a more suitable location. Court was held there the first day and adjourned the following day to the house of Henry Redford in the town of Terre Haute, which was otherwise known as the Eagle and Lion tavern at First Street and Wabash Avenue.Not so long ago, A. R. Markle was perusing the files of an early Vincennes paper and found an advertisement of a sale by the administrator of the Truman Blackman estate listing, among other things, one frame house under construction and two cabins. This gives rise to speculation as to whether the above-illustrated house was the house in which the historical happenings took place or it was in one of the cabins. Letters of administration were issued to Remember Blackman and Francis Cunningham in May, 1821, indicating he died shortly before that time. It is difficult today to prove this point conclusively one way or another, but in any case it is the house of this same Truman Blackman on the same farmland it is at least as old as 1821 and possibly older.I understand both of the cabins are gone now and even though this house should prove to be built in 1821, three years after the county was formed and the county seat selected it still is the only landmark we have left of Truman Blackman and the first meeting of the commissioners and the Court of Vigo County and is worthy of historical interest for the county.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/821
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Houses Blackman, Truman Architecture Domestic Life

Further information on this record can be found at its source.